PopulationA population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
:
- Total
- DensityThe mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...
|
Ranked
{{for|the town in AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
|Merthyr, Queensland}}
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough
Bwrdeisdref Sirol Merthyr Tudful
|
| Geography |
AreaSurface area is the measure of how much exposed area a solid object has, expressed in square units. Mathematical description of the surface area is considerably more involved than the definition of arc length of a curve. For polyhedra the surface area is the sum of the areas of its faces...
- Total
- Water |
Ranked 21st
111 km²
17% |
| Admin HQ |
Merthyr Tydfil |
| ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2:GB is the entry for the United Kingdom in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.Currently for the United Kingdom,...
|
GB-MTY |
| ONS code In the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics maintains a series of codes to represent a wide range of geographical areas of the UK, for use in tabulating census and other statistical data...
|
00PH |
| Demographics |
PopulationA population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
:
- Total ({{Welsh council population|TXT=Year}})
- DensityThe mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...
|
Ranked
{{for|the town in AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
|Merthyr, Queensland}}
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough
Bwrdeisdref Sirol Merthyr Tudful
|
| Geography |
AreaSurface area is the measure of how much exposed area a solid object has, expressed in square units. Mathematical description of the surface area is considerably more involved than the definition of arc length of a curve. For polyhedra the surface area is the sum of the areas of its faces...
- Total
- Water |
Ranked 21st
111 km²
17% |
| Admin HQ |
Merthyr Tydfil |
| ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2:GB is the entry for the United Kingdom in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.Currently for the United Kingdom,...
|
GB-MTY |
| ONS code In the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics maintains a series of codes to represent a wide range of geographical areas of the UK, for use in tabulating census and other statistical data...
|
00PH |
| Demographics |
PopulationA population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
:
- Total ({{Welsh council population|TXT=Year}})
- DensityThe mass density or density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ . In some cases , density is also defined as its weight per unit volume; although, this quantity is more properly called specific weight...
|
Ranked {{Welsh council population
{{Welsh council population|POP=00PH}}
Ranked {{Welsh council population
{{Welsh council population|DEN=00PH}} / km² |
| Ethnicity |
99.6% White. |
Welsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
- Any skills |
Ranked 15th
17.7% |
| Politics |
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
Merthyr.gov.uk |
| Control |
}
|-
!MP
|
- Dai Havard
David Stuart Havard is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney since 2001. Before then, he had been a secretary of the MSF union.-External links:...
|-
!AMThe 2007 National Assembly election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament election took place...
|
- Huw Lewis
Huw Lewis AM is a Welsh Labour Co-operative politician. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Lewis has represented the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency since the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999.-Early life:...
|-
|}
Merthyr Tydfil ({{lang-cy|Merthyr Tudful}}; ˈmɜrθər ˈtɪdvɪl) is a townA town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county boroughCounty borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...
, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic countyA county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
of GlamorganGlamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...
. It is often referred to simply as 'Merthyr'. The current administrative area of the Merthyr County Borough consists of the northern part of the Taff Valley and the smaller neighbouring Taff Bargoed Valley.
According to legend, the town is named after Saint TydfilSaint Tydfil , Standard Welsh Tudful, was a 5th century female saint associated with Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan, south Wales....
, a daughter of King BrychanBrychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king of Brycheiniog in South Wales.-Life:Celtic hagiography tells us that Brychan was born in Ireland, the son of a Prince Anlach, son of Coronac, and his wife, Marchel, heiress of the Welsh kingdom of Garthmadrun , which the couple later inherited...
of BrycheiniogBrycheiniog was a small independent petty kingdom in South Wales in the Early Middle Ages. It often acted as a buffer state between England to the east and the powerful south Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth to the west. It was conquered and pacified by the Normans between 1088 and 1095, though it...
. According to her legend she was slain at Merthyr by pagans around 480; the place was subsequently named Merthyr Tydfil in her honour. Although the usual meaning of the word merthyr (from the Latin martyrium) in modern Welsh is 'martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
', it is probable that the meaning here is "church (in memory of a saint or on his/her grave)." Similar examples, all from south Wales, include Merthyr Cynog, Merthyr Dyfan and Merthyr MawrMerthyr Mawr is a village about 2½ miles from the centre of Bridgend in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales.- Buildings and landmarks of note :...
. The Cornish and Breton language equivalents, in place names, are merther and merzher.
Pre-history
Various peoples, migrating north from EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, had lived in the area for many thousands of years. The archaeological recordThe archaeological record is the body of physical evidence about the past. It is one of the most basic concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record....
starts from about 1000BCE by the 'Celts' (although the 'Celtic Movement' may be seen as a gradual spreading of ideas rather than an invasion of a particular people) CeltThe Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
. From their language, the Welsh languageWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
may have developed. Hillforts were built during the Iron AgeThe Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
and the tribe that inhabited them in the South WalesSouth Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
area were called the SiluresThe Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe of ancient Britain, occupying approximately the counties of Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Glamorganshire of present day South Wales; and possibly Gloucestershire and Herefordshire of present day England...
, according to TacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
, the Roman historian of the Roman invaders.
The Roman invasion
The Romans had arrived in Roman Wales by about 47-53CE and established a network of Roman forts, with Roman roadThe Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
s to link them. They had to fight hard to consolidate their conquests, and in 74 CE they built a Roman auxiliary fortress at PenydarrenPenydarren Ironworks was the fourth of the great ironworks established at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.Built in 1784 by the brothers Samuel Homfray, Jeremiah Homfray, and Thomas Homfray, all sons of Francis Homfray of Stourbridge. Their father, Francis, for a time managed a nail warehouse there...
, overlooking the River TaffThe River Taff is a large river in Wales. It rises as two rivers in the Brecon Beacons — the Taf Fechan and the Taf Fawr — before joining to form the Taff north of Merthyr Tydfil...
(Taf). It covered an area of about 3 hectareThe hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s, and formed part of the network of roads and fortifications. Remains this fortress were found underneath the football ground where Merthyr Tydfil FC play. A road ran north–south through the area, linking the southern coast with Mid WalesMid Wales is the name given to the central region of Wales. The Mid Wales Regional Committee of the National Assembly for Wales covered the counties of Ceredigion and Powys and the area of Gwynedd that had previously been the district of Meirionydd. A similar definition is used by the BBC...
and Watling StreetWatling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
via BreconBrecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
. Parts of this and other roads, including one known as Sarn Helenright|thumb|250px|A section of Sarn Helen near Betws-y-coed.Sarn Helen was a Roman road in Wales, running from Aberconwy in the north to Carmarthen in the south.It was some 160 miles in length...
, can still be traced and walked on.
The local tribe, known as the SiluresThe Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe of ancient Britain, occupying approximately the counties of Monmouthshire, Breconshire and Glamorganshire of present day South Wales; and possibly Gloucestershire and Herefordshire of present day England...
, resisted this invasion fiercely from their mountain strongholds, but the Roman armiesThe Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
eventually prevailed. In time, relative peace was established and the Penydarren fortress was abandoned by about 120 CE. This had an unfortunate effect upon the local economy which had by this time come to rely upon supplying the fortress with beef and grain, as well as imported items such as oysters from the coast. Additionally, intermarriage with local women had occurred and many auxiliary veterans had settled locally on farms.
The Decline of the Roman EmpireThe decline of the Roman Empire refers to the gradual societal collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Many theories of causality prevail, but most concern the disintegration of political, economic, military, and other social institutions, in tandem with foreign invasions and usurpers from within the...
eventually developed with the Roman legionA Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
s being withdrawn around 380CE. By 402 CE, the army in BritainRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
comprised mostly Germanic troops and local recruits, and the cream of the army had been withdrawn across to the continent of Europe. Sometime during this period, Irish Dalriadan (Scots) and PictsThe Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
attacked and breached Hadrians Wall. During the 4th and 5th Centuries the coasts of Cambria (Wales) had been subject to the raids of Irish pirates, in much the same way as the south and East coast of Britain had been raided by SaxonThe Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
pirates from across the North SeaIn the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. Around the middle of the 5th century, Irish settlements had been established around SwanseaSwansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
and the Gower PeninsulaGower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
as well as in PembrokeshirePembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
and eventually petty kingdoms were establish as far inland as in Brecon. Later, by about 490CE, hordes of SaxonsThe Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
invaded and settled in the east or in "lowland" Britain and the locals were left to their own devices to fight off these new invaders.
The coming of Christianity
The LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
language and some Roman customsRomano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
and culture became established before the withdrawal of the Roman army. The ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
religion was introduced throughout much of Wales by the Romans, but locally, it may have been introduced later by monks from IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
who made their way into the region following rivers and valleys.
Local legends
Local tradition holds that a girl called TydfilSaint Tydfil , Standard Welsh Tudful, was a 5th century female saint associated with Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan, south Wales....
, daughter of a local chieftain named BrychanBrychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king of Brycheiniog in South Wales.-Life:Celtic hagiography tells us that Brychan was born in Ireland, the son of a Prince Anlach, son of Coronac, and his wife, Marchel, heiress of the Welsh kingdom of Garthmadrun , which the couple later inherited...
, was an early local convert to ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and was pursued and murdered by a band of marauding PictsThe Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
and SaxonsThe Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
while traveling to Hafod Tanglwys in AberfanThe Aberfan disaster was a catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip that occurred in the Welsh village of Aberfan on Friday 21 October 1966, killing 116 children and 28 adults.-Mining debris:...
, a local farm that is still occupied to this day. The girl was considered a martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
after her death in approximately 480CE. “Merthyr” translates to “Martyr” in EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and tradition holds that, when the town was founded, the name was chosen in her honour. A church was eventually built on the traditional site of her burial. Images of that church can be found on the Merthyr History website.
The Normans arrive
The valley through which the River TaffThe River Taff is a large river in Wales. It rises as two rivers in the Brecon Beacons — the Taf Fechan and the Taf Fawr — before joining to form the Taff north of Merthyr Tydfil...
flowed was heavily wooded, with a few scattered farms on the mountain slopes, and this situation persisted for several hundred years. The NormanThe Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
Barons moved in, after the Norman Conquest of England, but by 1093, they only occupied the lowlands and the uplands remained in the hands of the local Welsh rulers. The effect on the locals was probably minimal. There were conflicts between the Barons and the families descended from the Welsh princes, and control of the land passed to and fro in the Welsh MarchesThe Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
. During this time Morlais Castle was built.
Early modern Merthyr
No permanent settlement was formed until well into the Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. People continued to be self-sufficient, living by farming and later by trading. Merthyr Tydfil was little more than a village. An ironworksAn ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...
existed in the parishA parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in the Elizabethan period, but it did not survive beyond the early 1640s at the latest. In 1754, it was recorded that the valley was almost entirely populated by shepherdA shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
s. Farm produce was traded at a number of markets and fairs, notably the Waun Fair above DowlaisDowlais is a village and community of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales. As of 2001, it has a population of 6646.Dowlais is notable within Wales and Britain for its historic association with ironworking; once employing, through the Dowlais Iron Company, roughly 5,000 people, the works...
.
Influence and growth of iron industry
Merthyr was situated close to reserves of iron ore, coalCoal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and water, making it an ideal site for ironworksAn ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...
. Small-scale iron working and coal mining had been carried out at some places in South WalesSouth Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
since the Tudor periodThe Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
, but in the wake of the Industrial revolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
the demand for ironIron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
led to the rapid expansion of Merthyr's iron operations. The Dowlais IronworksThe Dowlais Ironworks was a major ironworks and steelworks located at Dowlais near Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales. Founded in the 18th century, it operated until the end of the 20th, at one time in the 19th century being the largest steel producer in the UK...
was founded by what would become the Dowlais Iron Company in 1759, making it the first major works in the area. It was followed in 1765 by the Cyfarthfa IronworksThe Cyfarthfa Ironworks was a major 18th century and 19th century ironworks located in Cyfarthfa, on the north-western edge of Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales.-The beginning:...
. The Plymouth ironworks were initially in the same ownership as Cyfarthfa, but passed after the death of Anthony BaconAnthony Bacon was an English-born merchant and industrialist who was significantly responsible for the emergence of Merthyr Tydfil as the iron-smelting centre of Britain.-Background:...
to Richard Hill in 1788. The fourth ironworks was Penydarren built by Francis HomfrayFrancis Homfray was an English industrialist and one of the founders of the iron industry in South Wales.Homfray, whose family were originally from Yorkshire, had been successful in the iron trade in Coalbrookdale, Staffordshire, and made his home at Wollaston Hall, Worcestershire. He married...
and Samuel HomfraySamuel Homfray was an English industrialist during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, associated with the early iron industry in South Wales....
after 1784.
The demand for iron was fuelled by the Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, who needed cannonA cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
for their ships, and later by the railways. In 1802, Admiral Lord Nelson visited Merthyr to witness cannonNaval artillery in the Age of Sail encompasses the period of roughly 1571-1863: when large, sail-powered wooden naval warships dominated the high seas, mounting a bewildering variety of different types and sizes of cannon as their main armament. By modern standards, these cannon were extremely...
being made.
Several railway companies established routes that linked Merthyr with coastal ports or other parts of Britain. They included the Brecon and Merthyr RailwayThe Brecon and Merthyr Junction Railway was one of several railways that served the industrial areas of South Wales and Monmouthshire. It ranked fifth amongst them in size, although hemmed in by the Taff Vale Railway and Great Western Railway...
, Vale of Neath RailwayThe Vale of Neath Railway was a broad gauge railway line from Neath to Merthyr Tydfil, in Glamorgan, Wales, and also operated the Swansea and Neath Railway which gave it access to the docks at Swansea...
, Taff Vale RailwayThe Taff Vale Railway is a railway in Glamorgan, South Wales, and is one of the oldest in Wales. It operated as an independent company from 1836 until 1922, when it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway...
and Great Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
. They often shared routes to enable access to coal mines and ironworks through rugged country, which presented great engineering challenges. In 1804, the world’s first railway steam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
, "The Iron Horse", developed by the CornishThe Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
engineer Richard TrevithickRichard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall. His most significant success was the high pressure steam engine and he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive...
, pulled 10 tons of iron on the newly constructed Merthyr Tramway from PenydarrenPenydarren Ironworks was the fourth of the great ironworks established at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.Built in 1784 by the brothers Samuel Homfray, Jeremiah Homfray, and Thomas Homfray, all sons of Francis Homfray of Stourbridge. Their father, Francis, for a time managed a nail warehouse there...
to AbercynonAbercynon is a small village in the Cynon Valley in Mid Glamorgan, Wales. The unitary authority is now known as Rhondda Cynon Taff. It is composed of the village of Abercynon itself,Carnetown,Glancynon,Park View and Pontcynon. However, in recent years the sign to show motorists they are entering...
. A replica of this now resides in the National Waterfront MuseumThe National Waterfront Museum, Swansea or NWMS is a museum situated in Swansea, Wales, forming part of the National Museum Wales. It is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage....
in Swansea. The tramway passed through what is arguably the oldest railway tunnel in the world, part of which can still be seen alongside Pentrebach Road at the lower end of the town.
The 1801 censusThe Census Act 1800 also known as the Population Act 1800 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which enabled the first Census of England, Scotland and Wales to be undertaken. The census was carried out in 1801 and every ten years thereafter...
recorded the population of Merthyr as 7705, the most populous parishA parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in Wales (however, the built-up area of SwanseaSwansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, covering several parishes, then exceeded 10,000). By 1851 Merthyr had overtaken Swansea to become the largest town in Wales with 46,378 inhabitants. By this time, IrishThe Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
immigrants made up 10% of the local population, and there were substantial numbers of EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, together with some SpaniardsThe Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
and ItaliansThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
. A Jewish community was established some time after 1841, and by 1851, they were able to establish a small prayer hall. The charming Merthyr SynagogueThe former Merthyr Synagogue is located on Bryntirion Road in the Thomastown section of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It is a Grade II listed building and thought to be the oldest purpose-built synagogue still standing in Wales.-History:...
was consecrated in 1875 and a cemetery at Cefn-Coed was established in the 1860s.
During the first few decades of the 19th century, the ironworks at DowlaisThe Dowlais Ironworks was a major ironworks and steelworks located at Dowlais near Merthyr Tydfil, in Wales. Founded in the 18th century, it operated until the end of the 20th, at one time in the 19th century being the largest steel producer in the UK...
and CyfarthfaThe Cyfarthfa Ironworks was a major 18th century and 19th century ironworks located in Cyfarthfa, on the north-western edge of Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales.-The beginning:...
continued to expand and at their peak were the most productive ironworks in the world. 50,000 tons of rails left just one ironworks in 1844, to enable expansion of railways across RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
to SiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. At its peak, the Dowlais Iron Company operated 18 blast furnaceA blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
s and employed 7,300 people, and by 1857 had constructed the world's most powerful rolling mill. The companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the GuestThe Guest family are a British family of the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries who, among other things built a huge industrial business in the Dowlais Iron Company and later in Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds.-John Guest:...
and CrawshayRichard Crawshay was a London iron merchant and then South Wales ironmaster.Richard Crawshay was born in Normanton in the West Riding of Yorkshire...
families. One of the famous members of the Guest family was Lady Charlotte GuestLady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest, , later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English businesswoman and translator...
who translated the MabinogionThe Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
into English from its original WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
. The families also supported the establishment of schools for their workers.
Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
visited Merthyr in 1850, writing that the town was filled with such "unguided, hard-worked, fierce, and miserable-looking sons of Adam I never saw before. Ah me ! It is like a vision of Hell, and will never leave me, that of these poor creatures broiling, all in sweat and dirt, amid their furnaces, pits, and rolling mills."
The Merthyr Rising
The Merthyr Rising of 1831 were precipitated by a combination of the ruthless collection of debts, frequent wage reductions when the value of iron periodically fell, and the imposition of truck shopsA truck system is an arrangement in which employees are paid in commodities or some currency substitute , rather than with standard money. This limits employees' ability to choose how to spend their earnings—generally to the benefit of the employer...
. Instead of using normal coin of the realm, some IronmasterAn ironmaster is the manager – and usually owner – of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain....
s paid their workers in specially minted coins or credit notes, known as "truck". These could only be exchanged at shops owned by the same ironmasters. Many of the workers objected to both the price and quality of the goods sold in these company-owned shops.
There is still controversy over what actually happened and who was to blame. It was probably more of an armed rebellion than an isolated riot. The initiators of the unrest were most probably the skilled workers; men who were much prized by the owners and often on friendly social terms with them. They also valued their loyalty to the owners and looked aghast at the idea of forming trade unions to demand higher wages. But events overtook them, and the community was tipped into rebellion.
The owners took fright at the challenge to their authority, and called on the military for assistance. Soldiers were sent from the garrison at BreconBrecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
. They clashed with the rioters, and several on both sides were killed. Despite the hope that they could negotiate with the owners, the skilled workers lost control of the movement.
Some 7,000 to 10,000 workers marched under a red flagIn politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
, which was later adopted internationally as the symbol of the working classes. For four days, magistrates and ironmasters were under siege in the Castle Hotel, and the protesters effectively controlled Merthyr.
Even with their numbers and captured weapons, they were unable to effectively oppose disciplined soldiers for very long, and several of the supposed leaders of the riots were arrested. Some were transported as convicts to the penal colonies of AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. One of them, Richard Lewis, popularly known as Dic PenderynRichard Lewis, better known as Dic Penderyn , was a Welsh labourer and coal miner who was involved with the Merthyr Rising of June 3, 1831. In the course of the riot he was arrested alongside Lewis Lewis, one of the primary figures in the uprising, and charged with stabbing a soldier with a bayonet...
, was hanged for the crime of stabbing a soldier named Donald Black in the leg. Lewis became known as the first local working-classWorking class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
martyr.
Alexander CordellAlexander Cordell was the pen-name of George Alexander Graber, a prolific Welsh novelist and author of thirty acclaimed works including Rape of the Fair Country, The Hosts of Rebecca and Song of the Earth....
's low-brow novel The Fire People is set in this period. A more serious political history of these events, The Merthyr Rising was written by the Merthyr-born Marxist writer Professor Gwyn A. WilliamsGwyn Alfred "Alf" Williams was a Welsh historian particularly known for his work on Antonio Gramsci and Francisco Goya as well as on Welsh history.- Life :...
in 1978.
The first trade unions, which were illegal and suppressed, formed shortly after the riots. The rising also helped create the momentum that led to the Reform ActThe Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales...
. The ChartismChartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
movement, which did not consider these reforms extensive enough, was subsequently active in Merthyr.
Many families had had enough of the strife, and they left Wales to use their skills elsewhere. Numerous people set out by ship to AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where the steelworks of PittsburghPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
were booming. It only cost about five pounds to travel steerage.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
The decline of coal and iron
The population of Merthyr reached 51,949 in 1861, but went into decline for several years thereafter. As the 19th century progressed, Merthyr's inland location became increasingly disadvantageous for iron production, and only the Dowlais works invested in steelmakingSteelmaking is the second step in producing steel from iron ore. In this stage, impurities such as sulfur, phosphorus, and excess carbon are removed from the raw iron, and alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium are added to produce the exact steel required.-Older...
technology. Penydarren closed in 1859 and Plymouth in 1880; thereafter some ironworkers migrated to the United States or even UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, where Merthyr engineer John HughesJohn James Hughes was a Welsh engineer, businessman and founder of a city in Ukraine. The city was originally named Yuzovka or Hughesovka after Hughes, but was renamed Stalino in 1924 .-Biography:Hughes was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales,...
established an ironworks in 1869.
In the 1870s the advent of coal miningThe goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
to the south of the town gave renewed impetus to the local economy and population growth. New mining communities developed at Merthyr ValeMerthyr Vale is a linear village in the Welsh county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan. Lying on the A4054 road it is on the east bank of the River Taff opposite Aberfan.-Ynys Owen:...
, TreharrisTreharris is a small town and community in the Taff Bargoed Valley in the south of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. It is located around 1 km west of Trelewis, from which it is separated by the Taff Bargoed river, and 1.5 km from Nelson in Caerphilly county borough and...
and BedlinogBedlinog is a small village located in the Taff Bargoed Valley 10 km north of Pontypridd, 10 km west of Caerphilly and 10 km south east of Merthyr Tydfil in south-east Wales...
, and the population of Merthyr itself rose to a peak of 80,990 in 1911. The growth of the town led to its grant of county boroughCounty borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in...
status in 1908.
The steel and coal industries began to decline after World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and by the 1930s, they had all closed. By 1932, more than 80% of men in Dowlais were unemployed; Merthyr experienced an out-migration of 27,000 people in the 1920s and 1930s, and a Royal CommissionIn Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
recommended that the town's county borough status should be abolished. The fortunes of Merthyr revived temporarily during World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, as war-related industry was established in the area. In the post-war years the local economy became increasingly reliant on light manufacturing, often providing employment for womenThe feminization of labor is a term used to describe emerging gendered labor relations born out of the rise of global capitalism. For instance, manufacturing jobs are now considered women's work.-Globalization and female labor:...
rather than men.
In 1987, the iron foundryA foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
, all that remained of the former Dowlais ironworks, finally closed, marking the end of 228 years continuous production on one site.
Post-Second World War
Immediately following the Second World War, several large companies set up in Merthyr. In October 1948, the American-owned Hoover CompanyThe Hoover Company started out as an American floor care manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio. It also established a major base in the United Kingdom and for most of the early-and-mid-20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the "hoover" brand name...
opened a large washing machineA washing machine is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets...
factory and depot in the village of PentrebachPentrebach is a village in the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It lies on the east side of the River Taff opposite Abercanaid, South of Merthyr and North of Troedyrhiw. To the east of the village lies the Mynydd Cilfach-yr-Encil which rises up to 445 m...
, a few miles south of Merthyr Tydfil. The factory was purpose-built to manufacture the Hoover Electric Washing Machine, and at one point, Hoover was the largest employer in the borough. At the Hoover factory the Sinclair C5The Sinclair Research C5 is a battery electric vehicle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair and launched by Sinclair Research in the United Kingdom on 10 January 1985. The vehicle is a battery-assisted tricycle steered by a handlebar beneath the driver's knees. Powered operation is possible making it...
was built.
Several other companies built factories, including an aviation components company, Teddington Aircraft Controls, which opened in 1946. The Teddington factory closed in the early 1970s. The local Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind, founded in 1923, remains the oldest active manufacturer in the town.
The GurnosGurnos is a community of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, United Kingdom. It consists principally of the Gurnos Estate, a large housing estate established by Merthyr Tydfil Council in the early 1950s and expanded over many years...
housing estate was, at the time of its construction, the largest council housing project in the world.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}
Cyfarthfa, the former home of the ironmaster Richard CrawshayRichard Crawshay was a London iron merchant and then South Wales ironmaster.Richard Crawshay was born in Normanton in the West Riding of Yorkshire...
, an opulent mock-castle, is now a museum. It houses a number of paintings of the town, a large collection of artefacts from the town's Industrial Revolution period, and a notable collection of EgyptianAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
tomb artefacts, including several sarcophagi.
In 1966 a colliery tip slid down a mountain covering a school causing the Aberfan disaster.
While testing a new angina treatment, researchers in Merthyr Tydfil discovered (purely by accident) that the new drug had erection-stimulating side effects. This discovery would go on to form the basis for Viagra. The inventor Howard Stapleton, based in Merthyr Tydfil, developed the technology that has given rise to the recent mosquitotone or Teen Buzz phenomenon.
Government
The current boroughA borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
boundaries date back to 1974, when the former county borough of Merthyr Tydfil expanded slightly to cover VaynorVaynor is a village, parish and community in the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough in Wales, United Kingdom.- Location :...
in Breconshire and BedlinogBedlinog is a small village located in the Taff Bargoed Valley 10 km north of Pontypridd, 10 km west of Caerphilly and 10 km south east of Merthyr Tydfil in south-east Wales...
in Glamorgan. Merthyr Tydfil became a local government districtIn 1974, Wales was re-divided for local government purposes into thirty-seven districts. Districts were the second tier of local government introduced by the Local Government Act 1972, being subdivisions of the eight counties introduced at the same time...
in the administrative countyAn administrative county was an administrative division in England and Wales and Ireland used for the purposes of local government. They are now abolished, although in Northern Ireland their former areas are used as the basis for lieutenancy....
of Mid GlamorganMid Glamorgan is a preserved county of Wales. From 1974 until 1996, it was also an administrative county, with a county council.Mid Glamorgan was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972...
at that time, although it reverted back to a county borough again on 1 April 1996.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough CouncilMerthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is the governing body for Merthyr Tydfil, one of the Principal Areas of Wales.-Political makeup:Elections take place every four years. The last election was 1 May 2008.- Current composition :-Electoral divisions:...
is the governing body for the area. It consists of 33 councillors representing 11 wards. During the local government elections of 1 May 2008, the long-ruling Welsh Labour Party lost its majority control of Merthyr council as a cohort of independents took seats and the Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
also made a significant breakthrough. The present composition of the council stands at Independents 13; Labour 10; Liberal Democrats 4; Merthyr Independents 3; 2 UKIP (elected as Independents) and 1 other.
Despite being widely regarded as one of its traditional heartlands, support for the Welsh Labour Party has waned significantly in recent years; as indeed the recent local election results confirm. In the 2005 General ElectionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
there was a 3.9% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats and in the 2007 Welsh Assembly Election there was a massive 15.8% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats. This was followed in the 2010 General Election by a further 16.9% swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats, the 3rd largest such swing in the United Kingdom. Labour's marority in the seat now stands at 4,000 votes.
The current Member of Parliament for the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituencyMerthyr Tydfil and Rhymney is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Boundaries :The main towns are Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney...
is Dai HavardDavid Stuart Havard is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney since 2001. Before then, he had been a secretary of the MSF union.-External links:...
, while the Welsh Assembly member is Huw LewisHuw Lewis AM is a Welsh Labour Co-operative politician. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Lewis has represented the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency since the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999.-Early life:...
AM.
Additionally, the BedlinogBedlinog is a small village located in the Taff Bargoed Valley 10 km north of Pontypridd, 10 km west of Caerphilly and 10 km south east of Merthyr Tydfil in south-east Wales...
Ward in the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, which covers the villages of TrelewisTrelewis is a small village in the Taff Bargoed Valley of south-east Wales, currently located in the southern part of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council area...
and BedlinogBedlinog is a small village located in the Taff Bargoed Valley 10 km north of Pontypridd, 10 km west of Caerphilly and 10 km south east of Merthyr Tydfil in south-east Wales...
in the neighbouring Taff Bargoed Valley, is governed by a separate local authority, Bedlinog Community Council, which consists of nine elected members, and whose powers and responsibilities cover the two villages within its area. The Ward is the only electoral area within the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough CouncilMerthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is the governing body for Merthyr Tydfil, one of the Principal Areas of Wales.-Political makeup:Elections take place every four years. The last election was 1 May 2008.- Current composition :-Electoral divisions:...
area with its own Council. The Council was created in 1974 by the former Gelligaer Urban District Council prior to its abolition and the subsequent transfer of Trelewis and Bedlinog into the Merthyr administrative area upon local government reorganisation in that year, to which most people in Bedlinog and Trelewis were opposed.
Industrial legacy
Merthyr Tydfil has a long and varied industrial heritageIndustrial heritage is an aspect of cultural heritage dealing specifically with the buildings and artifacts of industry which are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations, often forming a significant attraction for tourism.The...
, and was one of the seats of the industrial revolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
(see history below). Since the end of the Second World War, much of this has declined, with the closure of long-established coal miningThe goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
collieries, and both steelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
and ironworksAn ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...
. Despite recent improvements, some parts of the town remain economically disadvantaged, and there is a significant proportion of the community who are long-term unemployed.
In Britain today, Merthyr:
- Ranks 13th worst for economic activity
- Ranks 13th worst for life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
: women live on average 79.1 years, and men 75.5. This is lower than the average for England but better than the Scottish and north of England averages
- Has 30% of the population suffering from a limiting long-term illness.
A Channel 4 programme rated Merthyr Tydfil as the third worst place to live in Britain in 2006 following areas of London.
However, in the 2007 edition of the same programme, Merthyr had `improved` to fifth worst place to live.
Culture
Merthyr is home to several established choirs who perform regularly in the local area and throughout the rest of the world. They include Ynysowen Male Choir, Treharris Male Voice Choir, Dowlais Male Voice Choir, Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir, Cantorion Cyfartha, and the mixed-voice choir Con Voce.
The town has held many cultural events. Local poets and writers hold poetry evenings in the town, and music festivalA music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
s are organised at Cyfarthfa CastleCyfarthfa Castle is the former home of the Crawshay family, historical ironmasters of Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Park, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Despite appearing superficially to be a fortified building it is a house built in the style of a large mansion...
and Park. With this in mind, Menter Iaith Merthyr Tudful (The Merthyr Tydfil Welsh Language Initiative) have successfully transformed the Zoar Chapel and the adjacent vestry building in Pontmorlais into a community arts venue; Canolfan Soar and Theatr Soar, who now run a whole programme of performance events and activities through both the Welsh and English languages, together with a caffe and book shop, specialising in local interest and Welsh language books and CDs. Also on Pontmorlais Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association have recently been successful in a number of funding bids to develop the Old Town Hall into a new cultural centre, working in Partnership with Theatr & Ganolfan Soar to turn the Pontmorlais area into a cultural quarter for Merthyr Tydfil. Merthyr Tydfil College's Myfanwy Theatre also holds occasional professional performances and provides opportunity for students to perform dance, musicals, plays, and instrumental and vocal concerts, and where students work with some of the best in the business, including members of the Welsh National Opera.
Merthyr has several historical and heritage groups:
The Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Regeneration Trust, which has as its aim -
"To preserve for the benefit of the residents of Merthyr Tydfil and of the Nation at large whatever of the Historical, Architectural and Constructional Heritage may exist in and around Merthyr Tydfil in the form of buildings and artefacts of particular beauty or of Historical, Architectural or Constructional interest and also to improve, conserve and protect the environment thereto."
The Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society, which has as its aim -
"To advance the education of the public by promoting the study of the local history and architecture of Merthyr Tydfil".
The Merthyr Tydfil Museum and Heritage Groups, which has as its aim -
"To advance the education of the public by the promotion, support and improvement of the Heritage of Merthyr Tydfil and its Museums."
Merthyr Tydfil's Central Library, which is in a prominent position in the centre of the town, is a Carnegie libraryA Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems...
.
Merthyr Tydfil hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1881 and 1901 and the national Urdd Gobaith Cymrudde|200px|thumb|The Urdd logoUrdd Gobaith Cymru, literally, the Welsh League of Hope, but normally translated as the Welsh League of Youth, or merely referred to as the Urdd, is a Welsh-medium youth movement with over 1,500 branches and over 50,000 members...
Eisteddfod in 1987.
Tourism
The town is located in a South Wales ValleysThe South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...
environment just south of the Brecon BeaconsThe Brecon Beacons is a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of popular peaks south of Brecon, including South Wales' highest mountain, Pen y Fan, and which together form the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park...
National Park, and this, along with the town's rich history, means it has huge potential for tourism in WalesWales is an emerging tourist destination, with 8,078,900 visitors to National Trust and Welsh Tourist Board destinations in 2002. The industry has been estimated to have an annual turnover of £3.5 billion....
. National Cycle Route 8The route passes through the heart of Wales, and is also known by its Welsh name Lôn Las Cymru . It is largely north-south from Holyhead to Cardiff and Chepstow, and in total measures some in length...
passes through the town. The Brecon Mountain RailwayThe Brecon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge preserved railway that runs through the Brecon Beacons along the full length of the Pontsticill Reservoir...
is easily accessible by cycle and car. Merthyr is also on the fringes of Fforest Fawr GeoparkFforest Fawr Geopark was the first Geopark to be designated in Wales having gained membership of both the European Geoparks Network and the UNESCO-assisted Global Network of National Geoparks in October 2005. The Geopark aims to promote and support sustainable tourism and other opportunities to...
designated in 2005 in respect of the area's outstanding geological and cultural heritage. The borough has recently been awarded European Funding as part of the Interreg Collabor8 project and will be working in partnership with the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority to promote the region across Europe.
The Taff Bargoed Valley is increasingly becoming an area for outdoor activities and is home to Parc Taff Bargoed and the Summit Centre (formerly Welsh International Climbing Centre). Settlements of interest include BedlinogBedlinog is a small village located in the Taff Bargoed Valley 10 km north of Pontypridd, 10 km west of Caerphilly and 10 km south east of Merthyr Tydfil in south-east Wales...
, Quakers YardQuakers Yard is a village in the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, situated where the Taff Bargoed Valley joins the Taff Valley. Quakers Yard is part of the community of Treharris.-History:...
, Nelson, TrelewisTrelewis is a small village in the Taff Bargoed Valley of south-east Wales, currently located in the southern part of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council area...
, and TreharrisTreharris is a small town and community in the Taff Bargoed Valley in the south of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. It is located around 1 km west of Trelewis, from which it is separated by the Taff Bargoed river, and 1.5 km from Nelson in Caerphilly county borough and...
.
Roads
Road improvements mean the town is increasingly a commuter location and has shown some of the highest house price growth in the UK.
Public transport
Regular rail services operate from Merthyr Tydfil railway stationMerthyr Tydfil railway station is a railway station serving the town of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. It is the terminus of the Merthyr branch of the Merthyr Line. Passenger services are provided by Arriva Trains Wales...
to Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff CentralCardiff Central railway station is a major railway station on the South Wales Main Line in Cardiff, Wales.It is the largest and busiest station in Wales and one of the major stations of the British rail network, the tenth busiest station in the United Kingdom outside of London , based on 2007/08...
. Public transport links to CardiffCardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
are being improved.
Employment
Modern-day Merthyr relies on a combination of public sectorThe public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...
and manufacturingManufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
and service sector companies to provide employment. The Welsh Assembly GovernmentThe Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. It is accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, the legislature which represents the interests of the people of Wales and makes laws for Wales...
has recently opened a major office in the town near a large telecommunications call centreA call centre or call center is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing,...
. HooverThe Hoover Company started out as an American floor care manufacturer based in North Canton, Ohio. It also established a major base in the United Kingdom and for most of the early-and-mid-20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the "hoover" brand name...
(now part of the Candy GroupCandy is an Italian company based in Brugherio, near Milan, which manufactures domestic appliances.-Early history:Candy Group is an Italian privately-owned multi-brand group of companies, among the world leaders in the household appliance industry: washing machines, dishwashers, dryers,...
) has its Registered OfficeRegistered office is a term used to describe the address which is registered with the government registrar as the official address of a company, an association or any other legal entity. Generally it will form part of the public record...
in the town and remained a major employer until it transferred production abroad in March 2009, resulting in the loss of 337 jobs after the closure of its factory.
Sports and leisure
Cricket
Hills Plymouth Cricket Club is the oldest established Cricket club in the Merthyr area, based to the south of the town.
PenydarrenPenydarren Ironworks was the fourth of the great ironworks established at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales.Built in 1784 by the brothers Samuel Homfray, Jeremiah Homfray, and Thomas Homfray, all sons of Francis Homfray of Stourbridge. Their father, Francis, for a time managed a nail warehouse there...
Country XI CricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
Club was founded in 1971 and currently play at the ICI Rifle Fields Ground.
Boxing
Merthyr is particularly known for its boxersBoxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
, both amateurAn amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
and professionalA professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
. Some famous professional pugilists from the town include: Johnny OwenJohnny Owen was a professional boxer from Wales. His fragile appearance earned him many epithets, including ‘the Bionic Bantam’ and ‘the Merthyr Matchstick’. During his brief career, he held the Bantamweight Championships of Great Britain and Europe and became the first ever Welsh holder of the...
, Howard WinstoneHoward Winstone, MBE was a Welsh world champion boxer, born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. As an amateur, Winstone won the Amateur Boxing Association bantamweight title in 1958, and a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff-Boxing style:In his early...
, and Eddie ThomasEddie Thomas MBE , was a Welsh boxing champion and boxing manager.Thomas was born in Merthyr Tydfil. After a highly successful amateur boxing career, he turned professional in 1946. He won the Welsh welterweight title in 1948, the British welterweight title in 1949, and the European welterweight...
.
Football
In sporting terms, Merthyr is widely recognised for its soccer team, Merthyr Tydfil F.C.Merthyr Tydfil Football Club was a Welsh football club based at the Penydarren Park ground in Merthyr Tydfil. In 2010 the club was liquidated and reformed under the name Merthyr Town, which was accepted into Division One of the Western League.-History:...
. 'The Martyrs' currently compete in the British Gas Business Southern Football League Premier Division — three promotions away from the Football League and play home games at the Rhiw Dda’r ground. The club had their proudest moment in 1987, when having won the Welsh Cup and qualified for the European Cup Winners Cup, they beat Italian football team Atalanta 2–1 at Penydarren Park.
The town was once home to a fully professional Football LeagueThe Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
club, Merthyr Town F.C.Merthyr Town Football Club is a Welsh semi-professional football club based in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. For the 2011–2012 season the club will be playing in the Western Football League Premier Division at Penydarren Park in Merthyr....
, which folded in the 1930s and Merthyr Tydfil AFC were founded in 1945. The year of 2008 marked the centenary of football having been played at Penydarren ParkPenydarren Park is the former stadium for Merthyr Tydfil F.C. in Merthyr Tydfil. It has a capacity of 10,000. A housing estate next to it also carries the name of the stadium. It was also the home of the town's former club, Merthyr Town F.C., members of the Football League between 1920 and 1930,...
(1908 – 2008). After going into liquidation in 2010, the club switched grounds to Rhiw Dda’r.
Golf
Merthyr Tydfil Golf Club is situated on the southeastern slopes of Cefn Cil SanwsCefn Cil Sanws is a hill in the Brecon Beacons National Park within the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales. The summit at 460m above sea level is crowned by a trig point. The steep cliffs of Darren Fawr and Darren Fach defend its western side which drops down into Cwm Taf. A major...
, a rough gritstone and limestone hill northwest of the town. It is one of the highest golf courseA golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
s in Britain.
Rugby union
The local rugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
club, Merthyr RFCMerthyr RFC is a Welsh rugby union club based in Merthyr in South Wales. Merthyr RFC are presently members of the Welsh Rugby Union playing in the Division One East League and are a feeder club for the Cardiff Blues..-Early history:...
, is known as 'the Ironmen'. Merthyr RFC was one of the twelve founding clubs of the Welsh Rugby UnionThe Welsh Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Wales, recognised by the International Rugby Board.The union's patron is Queen Elizabeth II, and her grandson Prince William of Wales became the Vice Royal Patron of the Welsh Rugby Union as of February 2007.-History:The roots of the...
in 1881.
Rugby league
Merthyr Tydfil is home to the Tydfil Wildcats Rugby LeagueTydfil Wildcats Rugby League is a Rugby League club based in Merthyr Tydfil. The club colours are yellow and blue. The home ground was the cage in Troedyrhiw until September 2010 but relocated for the 2011 season to Dowlais RFC. The Wildcats play in the Wales Rugby League conference.- History...
team who played at The Cage in Troedyrhiw until September 2010. For 2011 the club is hosted by Dowlais RFCDowlais Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club based in Dowlais near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. They club is a member of the Welsh Rugby Union and is a feeder club for the Cardiff Blues.....
. Merthyr TydfilMerthyr Tydfil Rugby League Football Club was a professional rugby league club based in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales playing in the Welsh League and Northern Union. Based at College Field, Merthyr Tydfil were one of the first professional Welsh teams, and folded in 1911 after the failure of the Welsh League...
was one of the first rugby league sides formed in Wales in 1907 and notably beat the first touring Australian side in 1908.
Education
{{Prose|date=March 2010}}
Colleges
- Merthyr Tydfil College
Merthyr Tydfil College is a further education college located in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Since May 2006, it is a constituent college of the University of Glamorgan....
(Further EducationFurther education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
)
Vocational training providers
- Tydfil Training Consortium Limited
Secondary schools
- Afon Taf High School
Afon Taf High School is a comprehensive high school for pupils aged 11 to 18 , based in the village of Troed-y-rhiw in the borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales...
- Bishop Hedley High School
Bishop Hedley High School is a Roman Catholic secondary school, established in 1967, and located in Penydarren, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. The vast majority of the pupils of the school stem from the Heads of the Valleys, serving parishes from Aberdare, Hirwaun, Merthyr Tydfil, Merthyr Vale,...
- Cyfarthfa High School
Cyfarthfa High School is a comprehensive school, based in the town and borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, that was established in 1970. Cyfarthfa means "Place of the barking " in Welsh and the school crest reflects this.- Origins :...
- Pen-Y-Dre High School
Pen-Y-Dre is an 11-18 mixed-sex comprehensive school situated in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales in the UK. Pen-Y-Dre is on the Gurnos Estate.-External links:* - Historical Photographs of Pen-Y-Dre High School....
Primary schools/nurseries
- Abercanaid
Abercanaid is a small village in the Welsh county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom with a population of about 5,060. It is situated 2.5 miles south of Merthyr town centre and is west of Pentrebach, across the River Taff and north of Troedyrhiw...
Junior School
- Brecon Road Infants School
- Caedraw Primary School
- Edwardsville Primary School
- Goetre Primary School
- St. Aloysius R.C. Primary School
- Troedyrhiw Junior School
- Ysgol Rhyd y Grug — primary school; teaches through the medium of Welsh
- Ysgol Santes Tudful — primary school; teaches through the medium of Welsh
- Ysgol Y Graig Primary
- Twynyrodyn Community School
- Pantysgallog Primary School
- Heolgerrig Primary School
Mining
In 2006, a large open cast coal mine, which will extract 10 million tonnes of coal over 15 years, was authorised just east of Merthyr Tydfil as part of the Ffos-y-fran Opencast mine.
Notable people
- See :Category:People from Merthyr Tydfil
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2010}}
Among those born in Merthyr Tydfil are:
- Neil Peters — International Pool Player
- Gareth Abraham
Gareth John Abraham is a Welsh former professional footballer. He made over 100 appearances in The Football League with Cardiff City and Hereford United before playing non-league football for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhayader Town.-Career:Abraham came through the youth ranks at Cardiff City, captaining...
— professional footballer
- Barrie Bates
Barrie Bates is a darts player currently residing in Bedlinog, Mid-Glamorgan. He plays in the Professional Darts Corporation and is a regular on the circuit. His nickname is "Batesy"....
— professional darts player
- Laura Ashley
Laura Ashley was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She became a household name on the strength of her work as a designer and manufacturer of a range of colourful fabrics for clothes and home furnishings....
— fashion designer and retailer
- William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose
William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose was a British newspaper publisher.The second of three brothers born in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, Berry started his working life as a journalist and established his own paper, Advertising World, in 1901...
— newspaper proprietor, and his brothers Seymour Berry (Baron Buckland) and James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley
- Richard Davies
Richard Davies is a Welsh actor, from Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales whose film and TV work covers many years but is probably best known for his performance as the exasperated schoolmaster Mr Price in the LWT popular situation comedy Please Sir!.Davies uses a broad Welsh accent for much of his...
— actor
- Kevin Gall
Kevin Alexander Gall is a Welsh footballer who plays for Workington.Gall, a former Welsh under-21 international, started his career with Newcastle United, before being released in 2001 and signing for Bristol Rovers. After 50 league games for Rovers he moved on to Yeovil Town in 2003. He spent...
— professional footballer
- Sir Samuel Griffith
Sir Samuel Walker Griffith GCMG QC, was an Australian politician, Premier of Queensland, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and a principal author of the Constitution of Australia.-Early life:...
— AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n politician
- Craig Handley
Craig Handley is a Welsh film writer, director, producer and script editor. He is the creator of the upcoming web-series, Bleedout. Handley was born in Merthyr Tydfil and attended Cyfarthfa High School...
— film director
- John Hughes
John James Hughes was a Welsh engineer, businessman and founder of a city in Ukraine. The city was originally named Yuzovka or Hughesovka after Hughes, but was renamed Stalino in 1924 .-Biography:Hughes was born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales,...
— businessman
- Michael 'Micky' Jones (1942 – 10 March 2010) —Guitarist, singer and songwriter with The Bystanders and Man
Man are a rock band from South Wales whose style is a mixture of West Coast psychedelia, progressive rock, blues and country-rock. Formed in 1968 as a reincarnation of Welsh rock harmony group ‘’The Bystanders’’, Man are renowned for the extended jams in their live performances, and having had...
- William Ifor Jones
William Ifor Jones , was a Welsh conductor and organist. Born into a large coal-mining family and raised in Merthyr Tydfil, Jones studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1920 to 1925. He studied the organ with at St. Paul's Cathedral, London; orchestral Conducting with Sir Henry Wood...
— AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
conductor and organist
- Julien Macdonald
Julien Macdonald OBE is a Welsh fashion designer.Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Macdonald attended Cyfarthfa High School in Merthyr Tydfil. Macdonald was taught knitting by his mother, and soon became interested in design...
— fashion designer
- Philip Madoc
Philip Madoc is a Welsh actor who has had many television and film roles.One prominent role was the title character in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George...
— actor
- Leslie Norris
George Leslie Norris FRSL , was a prize-winning Welsh poet and short story writer. Up to 1974 he earned his living as a college lecturer, teacher and headmaster...
— poet
- Johnny Owen
Johnny Owen was a professional boxer from Wales. His fragile appearance earned him many epithets, including ‘the Bionic Bantam’ and ‘the Merthyr Matchstick’. During his brief career, he held the Bantamweight Championships of Great Britain and Europe and became the first ever Welsh holder of the...
— boxer
- Joseph Parry
Joseph Parry , was a Welsh composer and musician. Born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, he is best known as the composer of Myfanwy and Aberystwyth used in Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika the National anthem of South Africa.The cottage at 4 Chapel Row, Merthyr Tydfil, where Parry was born, is now open to the...
— composer
- Mark Pembridge
Mark Anthony Pembridge is a former footballer whose favoured position was the left side of midfield. He won numerous caps for Wales. He is currently a coach at the academy for Fulham.-Club career:...
— Wales international football player
- Robert Sidoli
Robert Sidoli is a Welsh rugby union player who plays for Newport Gwent Dragons.He has won 42 caps for Wales as a lock forward...
— Welsh rugby international
- Sean Smith
The Blackout is a post-hardcore band from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, formed in 2003. After some time backing Lostprophets on their Liberation Transmission Tour, along with Dopamine, Covergirl, Kids In Glass Houses, The Guns and Men, Women and Children, they released their first mini-album The Blackout!...
— singer (The Blackout)
- Rob Spragg — aka Larry Love — frontman (lead vocals) for Alabama 3
Alabama 3 are a British band mixing rock, dance, blues, country, and gospel styles, founded in Brixton, London, in 1995. In the United States, they are known as A3, allegedly to avoid any possible legal conflict with the country music band Alabama...
- Eddie Thomas
Eddie Thomas MBE , was a Welsh boxing champion and boxing manager.Thomas was born in Merthyr Tydfil. After a highly successful amateur boxing career, he turned professional in 1946. He won the Welsh welterweight title in 1948, the British welterweight title in 1949, and the European welterweight...
— boxer
- Malcolm Vaughan
Malcolm Vaughan was a Welsh traditional pop music singer and actor. Known for his distinctive tenor voice, he had a number of chart hits in the United Kingdom during the 1950s.-Biography:...
— Singer/Actor
- Howard Winstone
Howard Winstone, MBE was a Welsh world champion boxer, born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. As an amateur, Winstone won the Amateur Boxing Association bantamweight title in 1958, and a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff-Boxing style:In his early...
— Boxer
- The Blackout
The Blackout is a post-hardcore band from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, formed in 2003. After some time backing Lostprophets on their Liberation Transmission Tour, along with Dopamine, Covergirl, Kids In Glass Houses, The Guns and Men, Women and Children, they released their first mini-album The Blackout!...
— post-hardcore band
- Michael Gustavius Payne
Michael Gustavius Payne is a Welsh artist who uses symbolism derived from western art and mythology together with contemporary signifiers, to make paintings , that often have a surreal quality.-Early life:...
— Artist (painter)
- Glyn Jones — Poet
- Mike Jenkins
Mike Jenkins is a poet, story writer and novelist. Born in Aberystwyth, Jenkins was educated at the University College of Wales.Work...
— Poet and author
- Mario Basini
Mario Basini is a journalist, broadcaster and author, the son of a Welsh Italian cafe owner in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.-Work:Journalist and columnist with the Western Mail, he gained a degree in English from Aberystwyth University...
— Journalist, broadcaster and author
- Des Barry
Desmond Barry is an author. He was born in 1955 in Merthyr Tydfil and raised on the town's Gurnos estate.-Work:Barry gained a place at University College London . After his degree, he taught English in Italy and then in 1986 moved to the USA where he did a bewildering array of jobs before embarking...
— Author
- Ian Watkins — Lead singer of Lostprophets
Lostprophets is a Welsh rock band from Pontypridd, formed in 1997. Founded by vocalist Ian Watkins, bassist Mike Lewis, drummer Mike Chiplin and guitarist Lee Gaze, they were originally a side-project to hardcore punk band Public Disturbance. To date, Lostprophets have released four studio...
Other notable residents included Esther Isaacs, mother of "Chariots of FireChariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....
" athlete Harold AbrahamsHarold Maurice Abrahams, CBE, was a British athlete of Jewish origin. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire.-Early life:...
; the singer-songwriter Katell KeinegKatell Keineg , is a Breton-Welsh singer-songwriter, based in Dublin and New York.-Early life:Born in Brittany and raised in Cardiff, Katell Keineg is the second child and only daughter of Breton poet and playwright Paol Keineg and his then wife, Judith, a Welsh political activist and...
, whose mother is a native of Merthyr; the grandfather of Rolf HarrisRolf Harris, CBE, AM is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Harris was a champion swimmer before studying art. He moved to England in 1952, where he started to appear on television programmes on which he drew the...
also came from Merthyr. Sam HughesSam Hughes was the last great ophicleide player and one of the greatest who ever played the instrument in its short history.-Biography:Samuel Hughes was born in Trentham, Staffordshire, England, the son of a bricklayer....
began his career as a noted player of the ophicleideThe ophicleide is a family of conical bore, brass keyed-bugles. It has a similar shape to the sudrophone.- History :The ophicleide was invented in 1817 and patented in 1821 by French instrument maker Jean Hilaire Asté as an extension to the keyed bugle or Royal Kent bugle family...
in the Cyfarthfa Brass Band. One of the first two Labour MPs to be elected to parliament, the Scot Keir HardieJames Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, was elected by the Merthyr Tydfil constituencyMerthyr Tydfil was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan. From 1832 to 1868 it returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and in 1868 this was increased to two members...
.The 1970s juvenile group The OsmondsThe Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career—a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children, to achieving success as teen-music idols, to producing a hit television show, and to continued success as solo and group performers...
are of Welsh descent and have traced their ancestry to Merthyr. Also associated with the town are poet, journalist and Welsh Nationalist Harri WebbHarri Webb was an Anglo-Welsh poet, journalist and Welsh nationalist.Harri Webb was born on 7 September 1920 at 45 Ty Coch Road on the outskirts of Swansea, but before he was two the family moved to Catherine Street, much nearer the city centre...
, and poet, author and journalist Grahame DaviesGrahame Davies is a poet, editor and literary critic. He was brought up in the former coal mining village of Coedpoeth near Wrexham in north east Wales.-Education:...
.
See also
- List of places in Merthyr Tydfil - a list of settlements
- Pont-y-Cafnau
The Pont-y-Cafnau , sometimes written Pont y Cafnau or Pontycafnau, is a long iron truss bridge over the River Taff in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The bridge was designed by Watkin George and built in 1793 for his employer, the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, to support both a tramway and an aqueduct to carry...
- the world's earliest surviving iron railway bridge
External links
{{Merthyr Tydfil}}
{{Wales subdivisions}}
{{Wales Districts}}
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